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Wednesday’s crowd was the smallest of the season for a home game – 4,670 – but fans weren’t booing. Until the third period, they had little reason to.

The Reign lost in regulation for the first time when leading after one period, and for the first time when leading after two, by surrendering three unanswered goals to the Condors in the third period.

The Condors have won 9 of 10 and showed why. They continued to pepper Beau Erickson (28 saves) even after falling behind 3-1 early in the third period when Brett O’Malley scored a rare goal during a 5-on-3 penalty kill.

The Reign killed off the rest of Bakersfield’s two-man advantage but couldn’t garner any momentum from it. The Condors continued to generate scoring chances with ease and Erickson could do little about goals by Brendan Milnamow (which was deflected en route), Evan Stoflet (on an unchallenged, short-handed breakaway) and Slava Trukhno (another deflection).

Lane Caffaro and Chaz Johnson had the other goals for the Reign, who have lost four in a row and 13 of 15 on home ice.

Check out tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin for comments from Erickson, Caffaro and coach Karl Taylor.

The Reign will be without defenseman Doug Krantz for tonight’s game against the Alaska Aces. The ECHL suspended Krantz for one game and fined him an undisclosed amount as a result of his kneeing major and game misconduct in the third period of Wednesday’s game against the Victoria Salmon Kings.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association, player fines collected by the ECHL are given to the PHPA for its ECHL Player’s Hardship Fund.

Krantz has no points and a minus-3 rating in two games with the Reign since he was acquired from the Toledo Walleye on Dec. 26.

Reign coach Karl Taylor said through a team spokesperson that Monday’s ECHL transactions report erroneously showed the Reign signing a defenseman named Dylan Hunter. A forward by the same name, the son of former NHL player Dale Hunter, is under contract to the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. Hockeydb.com has no record of any defensemen named Dylan Hunter, so we’re guessing the ECHL goofed.

Also Monday, left wing James McEwan was placed on 3-day injured reserve while center C.J. Stretch was transferred to 7-day injured reserve and defenseman Eric Doyle (upper-body) was transferred to 21-day injured reserve.

No word yet as to whether defenseman Doug Krantz will be joining the team in Victoria, where the Reign will play Tim Kraus and the Victoria Salmon Kings in back-to-back games Tuesday and Wednesday.

Shawn Germain, Alex Bourret and Doug Krantz became the newest members of the Reign on Sunday.

Germain returns to the Reign after having not played a game since February, when he elected to undergo season- and possibly career-ending wrist surgery. An original member of the Reign, the 28-year-old defenseman is known or his steady play in his own end, but also had five goals and 32 points in 114 games with the Reign.

Bourret comes to the Reign from High1, the Chuncheon, South Korea-based entry in the Asian League. The 24-year-old right wing also has experience in the AHL and ECHL (he spent most of 2009-10 with the Las Vegas Wranglers) since turning pro in 2006-07.

Krantz, a third-year defenseman, was acquired prior to the game from the Toledo Walleye. He has seven goals and 28 points in 106 regular-season games for Wheeling, Cincinnati and Toledo, as well as two goals and six points in 20 playoff games.